Dialogue Positioning Honors Colleges as Campus Leaders in the Work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Richard Badenhausen, Dean, Westminster University Honors College
Dr. Tara Tuttle, former Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College
Susan Dinan, Dean, Adelphi University Honors College
Jason Hilton, Director, Slippery Rock University Honors College

While Honors education has historically been associated with elitist practices that were sometimes antithetical to DEI work in higher education, the last decade has seen significant progress in programs modifying processes to make them more aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Many have altered their admission practices to create greater access to Honors, diversified their curriculums, and developed programming to enhance student belonging. NCHC has even revised its standards to center DEI in the “Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education.” Some might argue that Honors education has “caught up.”

But what would it look like for Honors colleges to move beyond merely upholding the status quo and instead occupy a leadership role in DEI work, to drive campus conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion? Four Honors college leaders who have had success occupying such a space at their respective universities – and whose work was featured in a recent monograph on Honors colleges – will briefly walk workshop participants through those achievements. Participants will then break into small groups tied to one of four specific practice areas –faculty equity, enrollment, curricular and co-curricular reform, and student success – and examine strategies for adopting approaches on their own campuses that will lead to a more equitable and inclusive climate. Attendees will leave the session with tangible action items pointing their Honors programs and colleges toward a higher profile role in their campuses DEI efforts.

After a session overview and a “Who’s in the Room” activity to kick off the workshop – thus letting participants know where fellow attendees are in their DEI journey and establishing a sense of trust and good faith – the four workshop leaders will take five minutes each to share key pieces of their DEI successes. This “speed round” will help attendees choose one of four topics to focus on during small group work. After the introductory activity, the four leaders will lead small group conversations on their respective targeted areas, while covering the following: 1) the challenge of the local landscape; 2) possible solutions; 3) a timeline for implementation; and 4) potential campus allies. After this 30-minute small group work, we will reconvene for a 20-minute sharing-out session (5 minutes per group) and a 10-minute wrap-up featuring collective takeaways.

Attendees will choose from the following break-out options:

1. Institutionalizing Equity Among Honors College Faculty (Badenhausen)

   Having already focused on student-oriented DEI work – modifying admissions practices, administering student climate surveys, and creating student wellness programming – the Westminster University Honors College has turned its attention to creating a more equitable workplace environment for Honors college faculty, specifically through everyday institutional practices. Those practices include swapping out the traditional end-of-term summative course evaluation system (which is less equitable for women and faculty of color) for a midterm, formative, student-consensus model; creating a set of “Guidelines for Equitable Team Teaching Partnerships,” which foregrounds the issue of gender equity in team-teaching work; and employing a service equity scorecard that seeks to even out the distribution of often unseen service work across the Honors college and create transparency, documentation, and accountability. These innovations have been shared out across other units on campus and, in some cases, been adopted as part of larger university practices. Following the COVID emergency, when many inequities surfaced in institutional structures and workloads, the time is right to construct systemic practices that establish greater equity, which will be the focus of this group’s discussion.

2. Centering Students in the Everyday Practices of DEI Work (Tuttle)

   Because prioritizing voices of directly affected stakeholders is a principle of social justice and because true inclusion depends upon members of a community having the ability to shape that community through decision-making power, administering DEI in Honors programs must involve engaging students in its everyday practices. This ensures relevant responses to needs and guards against institutional betrayal by deepening commitments to confront issues our students face including barriers to equity and inclusion in our programs, to advocate for students whose identities are inadequately represented or supported, and to affirm their diverse identities, cultural heritages, and lived experiences. This group will discuss ways the Lewis Honors College engages its students in DEI efforts and how cross-campus collaborations advance DEI at UK.

3. Recruiting, Admissions, and Onboarding via an Access/ Inclusion Lens (Dinan)

   Building a class of Honors college students with different academic interests, different socioeconomic backgrounds, and different expressions of self is challenging, but yields important results. By moving away from a model of elite education meant to reward the highest achieving high school student with the best SAT scores and undertaking a quest to create an Honors college composed of curious and engaged learners, a new approach to admissions is critical. This group will learn how Adelphi Honors College staff evaluate the admissions files of all students who express interest in the Honors college, interview all suitable candidates, and showcase its current diverse student body as a tool to attract prospective students. The Honors college makes it clear to interested students that they will engage in a curriculum that includes many voices from many disciplines in the texts they read and in classroom discussions, while also exposing them to a wealth of cultural experiences beyond the campus in what are for many students unfamiliar settings.

4. Curricular and Co-Curricular Reform in Support of DEI (Hilton)

   Stepping away from traditional, elite academic programming to foster a much broader Honors community that leads DEI efforts requires rethinking the role of traditional Honors courses in Honors programming. For many of the most motivated learners, and especially learners from diverse backgrounds, acknowledging the opportunities and development that can occur outside of the classroom is essential to creating compelling Honors programming. Co-curricular High Impact Practices, such as undergraduate research, leadership, service learning, study away, and study abroad experiences, can be used to broaden Honors programming outside the classroom. For many, these experiences are often more transformative than a traditional approach of harder classes and extra projects. A new approach is needed, one that situates Honors classes as interdisciplinary incubators for social justice orientations alongside meaningful co-curricular experiences in which students are empowered to make positive changes around them. This group will explore Honors programming that appeals to a much broader community of potential students, while also acknowledging the diversity of backgrounds and motivations that bring them into the Honors community.